Nintendo explains the long wait between Pikmin 4's announcement and release
Just a little off base with that comment
All the way back in 2015, Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that Pikmin 4 was “very close to completion,” which was very exciting for franchise fans. It was also pretty surprising, as Pikmin 3 released just two years earlier in 2013. Those fans waited for word on when Pikmin 4 would come along, and that wait went from days, to weeks, to months, and then years.
What in the world happened between 2015 and 2023, you ask? How could the game have been close to finished in 2015, only to take 8 years to come about? Game Informer spoke to Nintendo’s chief and programming director Yuji Kando to find out.
After the development for Pikmin 3 ended, we started development for Pikmin 4 as a small team. As we made several attempts and tried out various things, there were moments when we could see the game take shape, but since we had to prioritize other projects, we weren’t able to create the development team framework needed to complete the game. But the fruits of our labor during that time lead to the result of what Pikmin 4 is today.
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donutmuffin
8M agoI love getting information about what happens behind the scenes. I wish we could know the real reasons for the delays and changes instead of the usual corporate talk.
Was Pikmin 4 actually close to being finished 8 years ago? Were they unhappy with the direction and decided to start over like with Metroid 4? Was he maybe talking about Hey! Pikmin and not the Pikmin 4 that released for Switch? Tell me, please!
I’ve long assumed he was talking about Hey! Pikmin, then with the generally negative reaction to that announcement they just said he was talking about a real Pikmin sequel to keep people happy when they were asked about it later. Just seems wild to have a nearly finished Pikmin 4 on Wii U only to cancel it entirely without porting it over to Switch for an early lifespan release, and though Hey! Pikmin didn’t release until 2017 it’s not uncommon to hear that Nintendo sit on finished games for ages before releasing them (Prime Remastered for example). Whatever game he was talking about he was confident enough in its quality to start talking about it, surely it would have been apparent that a proper Pikmin 4 wasn’t good enough by the time it was “nearly finished”? Who really knows!
I just logged in to say that I love your username (and avatar)!
noxide
8M agoI can totally believe this was the case, Nintendo's workforce isn't as large as their competitors and they need to manage their resources. I'm glad Nintendo has plans to drastically increase their production in the next few years.
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